Pre-Olympiad reports suggested all sorts of horrors awaited chess
players arrival in Khanty Mansiysk but the half-finished hotels and
poor food have not materialized. Certainly the handling of the charter
flights was a case study in how to create a disaster. The changes in
scheduling up to the last moment created hardships both financial and
personal as tickets to the charter locations had to be changed and many
players had to pull all nighters in transit halls, but in the end
everyone made it to Siberia safely.

The weather was surprisingly warm and sunny with daytime temperatures
in the 60s when we first arrived four days ago but has given way to
freezing rain. There is still time for a taste of real Siberian
weather. Several members of the American team played in the 2009 World
Cup held last November where the temperatures were as low as -30!

Khanty Mansiysk is one of the wealthiest cities in Russia despite
having been in existence for less than a hundred years. One statistic
that I have heard several times in my time here is that the 60,000
people in the region account for 2 percent of Russia's GDP with oil and
natural gas driving the economy of the region.

While much is going well here the decision to allow multiple Russian
teams has stirred up some controversy. FIDE regulations allow the host
organizer a second team as a reward for organizing the event with the
possibility of a third team - if, and only if - the starting list of
teams is odd. The Russians jumped the gun several months ago by
announcing a third team and when the pairings were announced prior to
round one an unprecedented 5(!) teams were representing Mother Russia.

Former World Champion GM Vladimir Kramnik, Photo Tony Rich for CCSCSL

Usually a second or third team is not a big deal but Russia is Russia!
The second team is seeded number four at 2702 (just a point behind
China) while the third team (a Siberian all-star squad) has 2726 rated
Dmitry Jakovenko on board one. The fourth team is composed of top
juniors throughout Russia with the fifth purely local players.

Russia completely missed out on the medals in the 2006 and 2008
Olympiads despite being top seed in both events. This time around they
are doing everything they can to rectify this state of affairs. Reports
in the Russian press have stated that the players for the Russian teams
only get paid if they medal. This might sound harsh until you read
further down the page that gold medals translate to $50,000 per player!

GM Alexander Grischuk, Photo Tony Rich for CCSCSL

The right to host the 2010 Olympiad was heatedly contested in 2006 with
over a half dozen countries interested in running the event. During
the Olympiad at Turin that year it took four rounds of voting for
Khanty Mansiysk to edge out the Adriatic resort of Budva in Montenegro.
The Russian organizers had to not only agreed to arrange charter
flights and offer cash prizes for top finishing teams (a first for an
Olympiad) but also committed to organizing the 2007 and 2009 World Cup
events. Likely it was their willingness to do the latter which accounts
for FIDE’s deference to the organizers demand to have five teams.

Back in 1994 when the Olympiad was held in Moscow the Russians took
home the gold and bronze medals and have the opportunity for a clean
sweep here but will face very strong opposition in what is
unquestionably the strongest Olympiad ever held. All top players
(Carlsen, Topalov, Kramnik, Aronian etc...) are here except World
Champion Anand.

The 2010 Chess Olympiad takes place from September 21st to October 3rd
in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It is an 11-round Swiss System team event,
in which each team has four players with one reserve.